Dialogue between Zhaozhou, Huangbo and Linji

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-Dharma Talk
by the Supreme Patriarch Most Ven. Jinje to mark the end of the summer retreat, Aug 28, 2015

[The
Master ascends the Dharma Seat and shows the Dharma Staff to the assembly.]

Claim
the Truth of this Dharma Staff, and

Your
opportune condition is like securing arrows and swords.

You
can distinguish between host and guest in a flash.

Don’t claim
the Truth of this Dharma Staff, but

The Staff has a luminous eye like the
sun, and

You will
manifest as a barbarian if a barbarian comes, and

Manifest as a civilian if a civilian
comes.

Today marks the end of the three-month
long summer retreat.

For those of you who have maintained
the spirit and courage you had at the beginning of the retreat, and who have resolved
the fundamental matter of life through perseverance, despite the intense summer
heat, today will be the end of the retreat in its truest sense. However, for
those of you who haven’t, the end of this retreat only marks the beginning of a
new retreat.

You should look into yourself again and
again.

To truly end a retreat means to know
your true nature by having broken through your hwadu, and to become a person of great freedom who can travel the world
without hindrance. If not, you should brace your mind again and resolve to
attain great enlightenment.

When you leave this monastery, you
should neither wander from this mountain to that mountain in a hurry without
mindfulness, nor should you travel like a ghost with your hwadu stashed in your backpack.

It is impossible to attain the Great Way
by passing time idly like that. You must realize that a retreat only truly ends
when you shatter your hwadu and a
virtuous master acknowledges your enlightenment. Until then, you should sit
like a rock with an unwavering mind and practice again and again with all your
might.

As you investigate your hwadu, every move you make and every
step you take should arise from your heart, and you should keep your hwadu in mind with every step and every
breath. You should strive diligently to maintain fervent doubt on your hwadu until it flows like a running
river.

As you strive to attain one-pointed
concentration on your hwadu, suddenly
a true doubt will arise. Then you will become oblivious to sight, sound and
even the passage of day and night. Days and months may
pass in this condition until you suddenly break through your hwadu, perhaps merely upon seeing an
object or hearing a sound. Then you pierce hundreds or thousands of gongan (koan) of the Buddha and
Patriarchs as though with a single rod.

From that moment on, no matter what
questions are thrown at you, you can give the right answer readily and stand shoulder to shoulder with all the Buddhas and Patriarchs.

At this level of attainment, you will
enjoy the bliss of enlightened concentration eternally, and even Old Yama
cannot take you to his realm of hell because you are invisible to him.

Once upon a time, Master Zhaozhou
visited Master Huangbo during his wandering practice. Upon seeing Zhaozhou
approach, Huangbo entered his own room and closed the door. Zhaozhou then
walked into the Dharma hall and shouted,

“Fire! Fire!”

Then Huangbo came out, grabbed
Zhaozhou and said,

“Speak! Speak!”

Huangbo answered, “You shot arrows
after the thief ran away.”

One day Master Zhaozhou visited Linji
Monastery and was washing his feet when Master Linji came up and asked,

“What is the meaning of Bodhidharma
coming from the west?”

Zhaozhou said, “As it happens, I am
just now washing my feet.”

Linji stepped up and leaned in
closer, as if listening.

Zhaozhou said, “You should have known
instantly. What is the use of ruminating?”

Then, Linji went away swinging his
arms.

Zhaozhou said, “Today I put my feet in
the wrong place for the first time in my thirty-year wandering practice.”

Assembly! Do you know of Master
Zhaozhou?

[The
Master addresses the silent assembly.]

Master Zhaozhou

Attained the eye that penetrates from
top to bottom.

Everywhere he went he met with
virtuous teachers.

The One Phrase at the foundation of
Truth shines eternally.

Assembly! Do you understand Master
Huangbo?

A dragon and a tiger hit each other,
and it is difficult to dodge the entire body.

Though it is the case

A good hand is offered to another
good hand.

How many more examples like this can
be found in the realms of heaven and humanity?

Assembly! Do you understand Master
Linji?

The perfect attainment of Linji

Is truly noble and dignified.

His Dharma Staff has the eye that can
discern even the tiniest speck.

As he sweeps away tigers and rabbits,
his family tradition is superb.

He burns the sea dragon of change
with lightning.

The sword that gives life and the blade that slays theliving.

The flash against the blue sky tells us

It is the
razor-sharp sword of Truth.

To perform a first-class order imparts
special taste.

Who would recognize the spots of full
pain?

Would you understand Master Linji?

Alas, Alas, I wail loudly.

[The Master hits the Dharma staff
once and descends from the Dharma Seat.]